To Fulfill All Righteousness

Matt. 3:14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”
15 But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.

The explanation that Jesus gave to John as to why He needed to be baptized by John was to fulfill all righteousness. It was not that Jesus was sinful nor was it simply to obey His Father but to fulfill all righteousness.

The is an extraordinary statement. "To fulfill all righteousness!"

Since all had sinned in the first Adam, Christ, the last Adam, had come in the flesh, without sin, to pay the price for the sins of all mankind and then to enter resurrection and by the Spirit enter into those men who believed, to become their life and their living.

In order to do that He first had to live a life on earth as a man, living by the divine life rather than His own natural sinless self-life. Then go through all the things that men and women go through so that when He entered into to His people they could live by a human-divine life that He had already lived the perfect humanity on the earth.

However, this living could only come after the perfect Man had fulfilled all righteousness. The first Adam had sinned and all his descendants were partakers of his sin. God, being just and righteous demanded justice. For His law says that if a man sins the just penalty is death. According to God's righteousness we should pay the penalty of death. Yet another volunteered to take out place. Since we all have sinned only a sinless person could pay the penalty. That Person is Jesus.

His baptism pointed to the coming cross upon which He would die and pay that penalty for us all. So when He was baptized He went through death and resurrection, just as we do when we are baptized.

From the time of His baptism on, He lived a life of a perfect New Testament saint, that is a life under the cross yet in resurrection. He lived by the source of the divine life in His spirit as we are commanded to do in this age. From this time on He lived a life in the spirit according to the divine law of life which operated according the divine nature of our Father. Because He lived this kind of life by the Father's life, His experience was much higher that those attempting to live by the law of Moses. This is why the Lord could speak concerning the constitution of the Kingdom of the heavens in Matt. 5-7. This is the description of a person who lives a life sourced from the Spirit in his spirit. (John 3:6; 4:24)

So the life we are able live in our spirit is that God-man life that Jesus lived while He was on earth. It has nothing to do with any effort on our part. It is altogether by the faith of this Person, Jesus . The way He lived on earth, in a total expression of the Father, is the way He wants us to live in Him. So we, if we are willing to pay the price of our self-life, may also live this life sourced from our spirit.